Scare City

Because of the Internet, we can no longer think good.

So says IDIOTS.

There's a curious tendency amongst people from all over the political spectrum to be suspicious of modern technology and to question the implications it has for the way we think.

Our attention spans are too short. We can no longer form real relationships with people. There's too much out there and it's too easy to get hold of. Cats doing unlikely things aren't that funny.

Well, I agree on the last one.

Except for the really funny cats.

People say the Internet has changed the way we think. And this might well be true. There are lots of experiments on the subject. But it's never clear whether this is a change for the worst. It's just assumed that it is.

Do you think the general intelligence of the population is significantly lower than it used to be? Are today's children more isolated, emotionally disconnected, and unable to deal with sophisticated ideas?

I don't know. I think it's unlikely, though.

There's a strange impulse amongst adults to disenfranchise the young. Ours was the last true generation. Modern music is rubbish, exams are getting easier, playing video games kills your imagination, kids are obese, apathetic drones.

Not like it was in my day.

Of course in my day, the same arguments were going on. And I suspect they always have been.

People criticise new technology as a matter of course. Before video games were ruining our youth, television was. Before that, radio was.

People complained about the printing press. "Our children," they probably said, in clogs, "are going to be slaves to the printed word. What happened to remembering things? How can we expect our children to engage with the world if they have it stored in books instead of neurons (which haven't even been invented yet)?"

Surely we won't know the ramifications of technological change until we've lived with it for decades. This Luddite fear of the new is dangerous but seemingly inevitable.

I'd feel patronised and oppressed if I was a modern youth. Thinking the world is against you is a cliche of the rebellious teenager. But guess what? IT'S TRUE.

On the video game example, people are always talking about how it robs children of their imagination. They're just brain-dead automatons numbly shooting people with massive guns. This is the assumption made by people who have no idea what they're talking about. They don't like games, so assume they must be damaging.

But let me tell you, I played a lot of video games when I was growing up. And - whilst I may have a litany of other social, physical and mental disorders - lack of imagination has never been a problem.

The idea that there's too much information, too freely available is ridiculous to me. I think people remember their childhoods, where you had to wait a week for the next episode of your favourite programme, you had to search through record shops for the obscure new album you wanted, you had to write people letters.

[Stewart Lee made me think of this. I think he's amazing, but his attitude (or the attitude he presents) to the modern world annoys me. He's always making unfair comparisons; citing the things he liked as a young man - alternative, good, interesting art - and relating them to the most banal mainstream media of today. There's probably more to write about him, but I just thought I'd vent a little.]

I can see why people like the idea of things not being immediately presented to them. I like finding rare things in rare shops, I like collecting things. But this is still going on. The Internet doesn't mean the joy of the hunt is over - it's just taking place over a different landscape. People are still finding interesting art, niche sub-cultures and minority opinion, it's just that they're searching online rather than onfoot. And this is a global search.

Not only that, but people still do go to record shops and search out rarities in the physical world. The Stewart Lees of this generation are still going to record and comic shops, but they also have an huge world of possibility open to them online.

Too much possibility, some might say. But some are dicks.

Imagine this scenario: a thirteen-year-old is standing in the British Library. Almost all literature is available to her - more than she could ever hope to read in a lifetime. All manner of subjects and opinions, epic poems, classic novels, books on how to make the perfect fruit salad. Books are everywhere, and she has free reign to explore any avenue her mind presents to her.

Now is anyone imagining this situation and thinking: "That poor child."?

I hope not.

Scarcity is not inherently valuable. If your locked in a windowless room for your whole life, you may develop a deep understanding of the room. You may become an expert on skirting boards. You may be able to concentrate for long periods on a single picture-hook.

But it would be better to unlock that door.

The Internet is fantastic. Well actually, the Internet is neutral. But the possibilities are fantastic. Just as they are for all technology. As long as prissy middle-aged worriers don't keep shutting off these innumerable yellow brick roads just because they didn't have them as a child.

Yes, your childhood was magical.

So was mine.

And what's more - and I know this may be hard to take - the children right now, the youth of 2011, are having childhoods just as full of wonder, mystery and depth as yours were.